There were 4,324 minerals identified by the International Mineralogical Association, or IMA. That is until recently when NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan found a NEW mineral in material that came from a comet! The mineral, a manganese silicide named Brownleeite, was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup.
NASA, June 2008